Recent Notes 38: A special dictionary
25 September 2024
KEITH JACKSON
NOOSA - Last week I received a request from Steven Gagau via my good friend, and one of the best friends Papua New Guinea ever had, Andrea Williams.
Steven is a researcher, academic and president of the Sydney Wantok Association. Last year he assisted to curate the Bilas: Body Adornment of PNG exhibition at the Australian Museum in Sydney.
Sam died in 2007 and Steven has written a splendid account of his life and career, which peaked in 1973 with his appointment as chairman of the National Broadcasting Corporation.
The NBC amalgamated the ABC's PNG Branch with the Government Broadcasting Service.
The Dictionary of Biography is a great project to mark an important anniversary. Was it really nearly 50 years ago?
DEVILS & SAINTS
MICHAEL KABUNI
PORT MORESBY - The problem with Papua New Guineans is that they don’t make the link between voting and their quality of life.
If you voted for a Pangu endorsed candidate, you were voting for Marape for PM.
When you voted for the PNC endorsed candidate, you were voting for O’Neill for PM.
When you voted for Duma, you were voting for reckless management of state owned enterprises and someone who unconsciously slides from one end to another.
When you voted for Juffa, you voted for thunder without rain (as someone once said).
And when you voted for Paita, you voted for a clone of Marape.
This mentality that you can vote for a devil and have a saint in parliament because he quoted scriptures when campaigning is absurd.
The rural population suffers the most when corruption eats up the money that’s supposed to improve their lives.
As 85% of PNG’s population, they have the largest say in who gets elected. After 50 years of independence, they should be able to put two and two together.
I don’t buy the nonsense that they lack education. It doesn’t take a degree to know someone is corrupt.
So when the enumerators don’t show up for the census, or the new connect road leads to nowhere or Maseratis rust to dust and no one is held accountable, try to figure out what’s going on.
Don’t betray the wisdom that guided your ancestors. Don’t dump the genes that produced you for a Coke, lamb flaps, a free beer and a K50 election bribe.
THE EDITOR'S INVALIDITY
KEITH JACKSON
NOOSA – It’s called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) because it was identified in different jurisdictions and earned different names – one absurdly technical; the other ridiculously simplistic.
I just call it The Bastard because it’s a complex illness for which there is no defined cause, no cure and no recognised treatment.
Its symptoms do include fatigue, but this fatigue is to a pleasant afternoon nap as a goldfish is to a tiger shark.
One of its highlights is to wreck cognition and when this happens it removes, in this order, my ability to write, read, converse, watch television, listen and eventually think.
It gnaws away memory, extinguishes concentration and throws in balance problems in case everything else is not enough.
The coup de grace, an event commonly referred to as a ‘crash’, sweeps through the body like a tropical storm resulting in a semi-comatose state lasting for a couple of hours and taking a couple of days to get over.
For some reason, over the last couple of days I’ve had some respite from the worst of The Bastard.
One result is that PNG Attitude has been a bit more active than it has for most of this year.
Now you know why.
Your help, and friendship, is always hugely appreciated Keith! Many thanks for the valuable input! Thank heavens there are sunny days amidst those grey clouds of CFS.
Posted by: Andrea Williams | 29 September 2024 at 09:59 AM
Ach nou Philip yer no on yer lonesome, Join the club; I've been there for quite a while, tomorrow's always another day.
Posted by: William Dunlop | 26 September 2024 at 09:14 PM
Life is itself, a gift.
Finding what to do with it, is a joy.
Encroaching deprivation? A worry.
Sharing knowledge, finds purpose.
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 25 September 2024 at 04:22 PM
Talking to some other PNG Attitude stalwarts its become apparent that quite a few of us use the activity on the blog as a measure of your health Keith. Nothing much on Attitude lately, Keith must not be feeling too good again.
I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation a while ago, which among its symtoms includes tiredness and breathlessness. Nothing as extreme as chronic fatigue syndrome but enough to limit one's activities, especially when coupled with my pre-existing diabetes.
Abfib as people call it is quite common in Oz, something like 2% of the population suffer from it, especially the elderly. It's basically an irregular heartbeat. There are no real long term cures but there are a few hit and miss measures that can halt it temporarily and drugs to guard against strokes.
Getting old for a lot of people seems to naturally involve pain and discomfort.
I've got a nullah-nullah ready to go in the coffin just in case there is a god.
Posted by: Philip Fitzpatrick | 25 September 2024 at 12:17 PM